People

Current Members

Prof. Scott L Cockroft

Scott was born and raised in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. He joined the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 2007 as lecturer and was promoted to Professor in 2019 as Personal Chair of Supramolecular Chemistry. Prior to this he conducted postdoctoral work with Prof. M. Reza Ghadiri at The Scripps Research Institute, California (2006-2007) and his PhD with Prof. Christopher A. Hunter FRS at the University of Sheffield (2002-2006). He enjoys a good red wine and Shpongle. His eyes are often "funny" due to myasthenia gravis.

Dr Dylan George

Postdoc, 2022-

Dylan joined the Cockroft and Horrocks group in 2022. He completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield developing single-molecule microscopy instrumentation for drug discovery applications. He is now focussing on using super-resolution microscopy to study transmembrane rotary motors. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, travelling and playing rugby.

Dr Krzysztof Bąk

Postdoc, 2022-

Krzysztof joined the Cockroft group in 2022 and is a working on transmembrane molecular machine synthesis/assembly and patch-clamp characterisation. Previously he undertook a Postdoc with Prof. Paul Beer at the University of Oxford.

Dongning Sheng

PhD Student, 2022-

Dongning joined the Cockroft group from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, where he worked on catalysis projects both from a synthetic and computational perspective. He is currently working on new methods of OH-group bioconjugation. Dongning enjoys playing classic video games such as ‘Touhou Project’ and watching anime.

Tim Spankie

PhD Student, 2021–

Tim secured an EASTBIO PhD studentship to join the group in 2021 to study the computational electrophysiology of transmembrane molecular machines, working in collaboration with Ulrich Zachariae (School of Life Sciences, Dundee). When not computing he enjoys some recurve Archery, embracing his Nottinghamshire roots, or extremely uncompetitive Table-tennis!

Louis Gravillier

PhD Student, 2020–

Louis joined the Cockroft group in 2020. He works on a PhD project examining the molecular origin of macroscopic viscosity and friction. Outside of the lab, Louis enjoys riding and working on his bike, playing videogames and cooking.

Daniel Edwards

PhD Student, 2019–

Dan secured an EASTBIO PhD studentship to join the group in 2019 where he will be working in collaboration with Dr Amanda Jarvis (School of Chemistry, Edinburgh) to examine catalytic reactions inside modified protein nanopores. Dan is a keen musician and enjoys hiking especially in his local area on the Norfolk Broads, unfortunately a long way from Edinburgh!

Ivan Smoliar

PhD Student, 2019–2022 writing up;

Ivan Smoliar joined the Cockroft group in 2019 to work on a PhD project examining the fundamental principles governing interactions and chemical reactions. In his spare time he enjoys playing double bass.

Graduated PhD Students (and destinations)

Dr Dominic Cairns-Gibson
Graduated 2023
Education and Engagement Development Officer at Edinburgh BioQuarter

Dr Andrew West
Graduated 2022
Postdoc with ‪Kurt Gothelf (University of Aarhus, Denmark)

Dr Alex Elmi
Graduated 2021
Research Scientist, Sygnature (Nottingham, UK)

Dr Rebecca Burns
Graduated 2020
Student Adviser (School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK)
Previously, Assistant Professor (Heriot Watt, UK)

Dr Nicole Meredith
Graduated 2019
Formulation Scientist at Lonza (Livingston, UK)

Dr Qingshu Zheng
Graduated 2019
Assistant Research Fellow (Group leader/Lecturer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)
Previously, postdoc (Fudan University, China)

Dr Dominic Pascoe
Graduated 2018
Postgrad Medicine (St. Andrews/Dundee, UK)

Dr Antoine Bader
Graduated 2018
ATDBio (Oxford, UK)

Dr Nicholas Dominelli Whiteley
Graduated 2017
Postgrad Medicine (St. Andrews/Dundee, UK)
Previously, postdoc with Marcey Waters (University of North Carolina, USA)

Dr Justinas Slikas
Graduated 2017
Senior Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Science Solutions, Lithuania
Previously, Research scientist at Base4 Innovation (Cambridge, UK)
Previously, postdoc with James Murray (Imperial, UK)

Dr Kamila Muchowska
Graduated 2016
Associate at McKinsey, London
Formerly, Chargée de Recherche (group leader at CNRS University of Strasbourg, France)
Previously, postdoc with Joseph Moran (CNRS University of Strasbourg, France)

Dr Thomas Hubbard
Graduated 2015
Synthetic Chemist at Innospec

Dr Catherine Adam
Graduated 2015
Postdoc with Asier Unciti-Broceta (Edinburgh, UK)
Previously, postdoc with Jonathan Clayden (Manchester/Bristol, UK)

Dr Matthew Watson
Graduated 2015
Postdoc with Roman Tuma and Sheena Radford (Leeds, UK)

Dr James Brown
Graduated 2014

Dr Lixu Yang
Graduated 2012
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (Chongqing University, China)
Previously, postdoc with Neil Champness (Nottingham, UK)

Dr Ma Long
Graduated 2012 (co-supervised with Prof. Anita Jones)
Postdoc with Prof. David O'Hagan (St Andrews, UK)

Dr Ioulia Mati
Graduated 2012
Postdoc with Euan Kay (St Andrews, UK)
Previously, postdoc with Colin Campbell (Edinburgh, UK)

Former postdocs (and destinations)

Dr Sam Oldknow
Postdoc, 2018–2019
Postdoc with Dr. Paul Lusby (Edinburgh, UK)

Dr Marius Haugland
Postdoc, 2017–2018
Postdoc with Prof. Ed Anderson (Oxford, UK)

Dr Stefan Borsley
Postdoc, 2016–2018
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Manchester
Postdoc with Prof. Dave Leigh FRS (Manchester, UK)

Dr Jamie Withers
Postdoc, 2018
Postdoc with Prof. Glen Burley (University of Strathclyde, Glasdow, UK)

Dr Dominic Pascoe
Postdoc, 2018
Postgrad Medicine (St. Andrews/Dundee, UK)

Dr Antoine Bader
Postdoc, 2017–2018
ATDBio (Oxford, UK)

Dr James Cooper
Postdoc, 2015–2017
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry (University of Reading, UK)
Postdoc with Prof. Sir J. Fraser Stoddart (Northwestern University, USA)

Dr Matthew Watson
Postdoc, 2015–2017
Postdoc with Roman Tuma and Sheena Radford (University of Leeds, UK)

Dr Michael Ochsenkuehn
Postdoc, 2010–2011
Researcher at (New York University, UAE)
Postdoc (KAUST, Saudia Arabia)

Dr John Brazier
Postdoc, 2009–2010
Postdoc with King Kuok (Mimi) Hii, (Imperial College London, UK)

Project students and research visitors

Anna-Luisa Warnke Visiting Postdoc, 2023	Wenkai Zhang BSc MChem Student, 2023-2024	Elizabeth Hill BSc MChem Student, 2023-2024
Natasza Rybacka 4P MChem Student, 2023	Cameron Anderson 4P MChem Student, 2023	Karen Sato 4P MChem Student, 2023
Nojus Osinskas 4P MChem Student, 2022	Antonio Fiorentino Visiting Student from Bologna, 2023	Yinxuan Zhang MSc Student, 2023
Ryan Ferguson 4P MChem Student, 2022	Elena Gil Gutiérrez 4P MChem Student, 2022	Falk Meier 4P MChem Student, 2022
Nicholas Runcie 4P MChem Student, 2022	Justin Ko BSc Student, 2022	Gleb Butyagin Summer Student, 2022
Nojus Osinskas Summer Student, 2022	Jianning Lu MSc Student, 2022	Chenfeng Zhang MSc Student, 2022
Katie Brown 4P MChem Student, 2022	Allison Findlay 4P MChem Student, 2022	Adrian Popescu 4P MChem Student, 2022
Jonathon Walker 4P MChem Student, 2022	Eve Bryson BSc Studemt, 2021-2022	Jessica Flowers MChem Student, 2021-2022
Yuqing Zhang MSc Student, 2021	Sopika Balaskanthan 4P MChem Student, 2021	Rachel Feeney 4P MChem Student, 2021
Botond Gemesi 4P MChem Student, 2021	Cameron Webster 4P MChem Student, 2021	Xiao Hu Bsc Student, 2020-2021
Juliet Barclay MChem Student, 2020-2021	Felix Roughton BSc Student, 2019–2020	Andrew Cummins 4P MChem Student, 2019
Peter Ning 4P MChem Student, 2019	Reinis Rudzitis Summer Student, 2019	Vesela Zarkina Afton Chemical Scholarship, 2019
Kris Chambers 4P MChem Student, 2019	Laura Fineron 4P MChem Student, 2019	Louise Biden BSc Student, 2018–2019
Artem Goldort BSc Student, 2018–2019	Hubert Liu MChem Student, 2018–2019	Sarah Aitken 4P MChem Student, 2018
Adelina Ivanova 4P MChem Student, 2018	Mia Kapun 4P MChem Student, 2018	Lydia Bowman MChem Student, 2017–2018
Dominic Cairns-Gibson MChem Student, 2017–2018	Karina Krogstrup Technical Intern, 2017–2018	Katie Grant Deans Summer Scholarship, 2017
Alvaro Gallego 4P MChem Student, 2017	Lucy McQuade 4P MChem Student, 2017	Mohanish Borana MSc Student, 2017
Ewan Bain MChem Student, 2016–2017	Militsa Yaneva MChem Student, 2016–2017	Tay McDonald 4P MChem Student, 2016
Simon Thornewill von Essen 4P MChem Student, 2016	Anja Neumann MSc Student, 2016	Simon Sponholtz Technical Intern, 2016
Alethea Han Hui He BSc Student, 2015–2016	Christopher Evans MChem Student, 2015–2016	Amy Marshall BSc Student, 2014–2015
Sarah McArthur MChem Student, 2014–2015	Fredrik Karlsson MChem Student, 2014–2015	Jakob Jessen Technical Intern, 2014–2015
Hannah Paterson MChem Student, 2013–2014	Ksenia Aleksankina MChem Student, 2013–2014	Daniel Dodd BSc Student, 2014
Ben Moss BSc Student, 2013–2014	Ksenia Aleksankina MChem Student, 2013–2014	Dominic Pascoe MChem Student, 2013–2014
Shona Cammack MChem Student, 2012–2013	Lucy Antrobus MChem Student, 2012–2013	Calum Ferguson MChem Student, 2012–2013
Graeme Rogers MSc Student, 2012	Gemma Gowrie MChem Student, 2011–2012	Jack Harris MChem Student, 2011–2012
Hayat P. H. Saifuddin MSc Student, 2011	Susie Metcalfe BSc Student, 2010–2011	Nicholas Dominelli Whiteley MChem Student, 2010–2011
Basile Wicky Visiting Student, 2010–2011	Eugene Guobin Choon Visiting Student, 2010	Urszula Wolkowicz BSc Student, 2009–2010
Catherine Adam MChem Student, 2009–2010	Sophie Spurr MChem Student, 2009–2010	Kirsten Strain MChem Student, 2008–2009
Tereza Vokata MChem Student, 2008–2009	Stefanie Noe Visiting Student, 2008–2009	Bobby Oag BSc Student, 2007–2008

Group Photos

Cockroft group, Winter Social, Wedgewood Edinburgh, November 2023.

Cockroft group, Autumn BBQ, Edinburgh, September 2023.

Cockroft group, BABA, Edinburgh, November 2022.

Cockroft group, Autumn BBQ, Edinburgh, September 2022.

Cockroft group, Edinburgh, August 2022.

Cockroft group, Edinburgh, May 2019.

Cockroft group, Winter Festival Edinburgh, December 2017.

Cockroft group and Scott's bride, Loch Ard, September 2015.

Cockroft group, Hanam's Restaurant, Edinburgh, December 2013.

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The Cockroft Group

Current Members

Graduated PhD Students (and destinations)

Former postdocs (and destinations)

Project students and research visitors

Group Photos